Today we check back into the idiosyncratic musical world of K. Leimer. Savant was a collaborative project the formerly Seattle-based artist ran back in the 80’s. Recording out of his home studio, Tactical, Savant brought together musicians like Op Magazine’s John Foster, ambient composer Marc Barreca, New Flamingos’ members Jim and David Keller, as well as their bandmate Alex Petit, to name a few. Pushing his fellow musicians out of their comfort zone, Leimer would often give them instruments they were unfamiliar with, recording the results when they got interesting. As Leimer explains in the liner notes to Artificial Dance, a new 2xLP out today on RVNG Intl. culling together the musician’s 1983 LP The Neo Realist (At Risk), Savant’s debut 12″, as well as a few compilation and formerly unreleased tracks: “I was looking for flaws, for faults to act as the stand-out features of the music”. These recordings would then by diced and sliced into a track like “The Shining Hour“, a cut whose sequenced drift still sounds fresh 30 years later.
Director and filmmaker Bill Stepanoski provides the visuals here, using various snippets of vintage “found footage” to echo the cut’s circled and looped sequencing, producing hypnotic and dizzying results.
